Hollyoaks' new recruit Nikki Sanderson has insisted that her character Maxine Minniver is "lovely" deep down.

Maxine - sister of established regular Mitzeee (Rachel Shenton) - has been billed as a "flirtatious bombshell" who is likely to cause fireworks in the village, but Sanderson has promised that she also has a kind-hearted side.

Speaking to Digital Spy, Sanderson explained: "Maxine is a really interesting character to play. I think she has got a heart and she is lovely, but she just doesn't show it at first! When she first arrives, she's more interested in herself and how everyone should fit into her life, rather than her fitting into theirs.

"She's also a little bit of a conwoman. Maxine comes in with a bang and cons pretty much everybody in the village in her first day. She thinks it's fine as she's never going to see them again, only to see them later on in the pub and have to face the music!

"Everyone she conned is there, and you'll see that everything goes a little bit wrong for Maxine - especially when she sees her sister."

Maxine fell out with Mitzeee five years ago by stealing her fiancé Gary, and the feisty siblings have not spoken to each other since.

Asked whether Maxine now feels guilty, Sanderson replied: "I don't think she does at first, as she's quite ignorant and quite selfish. Maxine thinks that Mitzeee should get over it as it was such a long time ago. It's only as Maxine starts speaking to [Mitzeee] that she realises the impact it had on her life.

"That's when Maxine stops and thinks about it. She realises that she actually did cause a lot of pain for her younger sister. I don't think she'd realised what she'd caused until now. Maxine was looking after number one, but she sees that she did the wrong thing and maybe she shouldn't have turned up to see Mitzeee after all."

Hollyoaks airs Sanderson's first scenes on Tuesday, November 6 at 6.30pm on Channel 4.